New research hints that some of the more complicated building blocks of life can form on grains of space dust, potentially leading to biological molecules on planets. The complex precursors to biological molecules can form spontaneously in interstellar space, according to a lab experiment that opens up new pathways for the origin of life in the universe. The cocktail of lifeEarly life evolved from a complex cocktail of prebiotic molecules, including amino acids, basic sugars and RNA . "If amino acids could join in space and get to the next level of complexity [dipeptides], when that's delivered to a planetary surface, there's an even more positive starting point to form life," Hopkinson told Live Science. "It's a very exciting theory, and we wanted to see, what is the limit of complexity that these molecules could form in space?"